Chapter 3
This chapter looks at the philosophical foundations of progressive education, including the work of Plato, Rousseau and Hegel. The growth of progressive thought is traced through John Dewey, culminating in descriptions of the current applications of project based education and a deeper look at outcome based education techniques.
Table of Contents
The University of Chicago Laboratory School
The Counterpoint - Traditional Education
Current Models - Project Based and Outcome Based Education
Assessment of Student Progress in an OBE Environment
Historical Foundations of Progressive Education Theory
"The use of the project method cannot make things any worse than they are. The defenders of the present system sometimes talk as though they believed that children are learning a great deal by the present method. Those of us who have sons or daughters in school know better."
Clearly this statement was made by an advocate of educational reform, disaffected with the traditional system. It would not be out of place in the latest issue of Educational Leadership or any other current educational journal. What is striking is that this is an eighty year old quote from Professor J. F. Hosic writing in the September, 1921 issue of the Teacher's College Record. (pg. 306) Far from being a current fad or recent reform movement, progressive education has a couple of centuries of practical experience behind it, and ancient philosophical roots.
In 1762 the romanticist Jean-Jacques Rousseau published Emile, a novel setting forth a philosophy of education that draws away from subject and teacher based rote learning, seeking to exploit the child's natural interests to cultivate an active, free, and self directed student. Rousseau's faith in the innate goodness of nature is stated starkly in the first sentences of Emile: "Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Maker of the world but degenerates as it gets into the hands of man." ( Boyd, 1956, p.11 )
In Rousseau's view, social responsibility arose very late in the educational process as an extension of the child's self interest, and as a natural consequence of a young adult's desire to establish family and take a place in the community.
Rousseau envisioned a healthy, physically active education, in touch with nature and the outdoors, and including practical knowledge of a trade. (This latter despite the fact he was specifically writing a plan for a rich student.) He took an approach that was novel in his time, adapting stages of education to the changing abilities and interests during the stages of the child's growth, an idea validated over a century later by the new science of psychology.
Emile was instantly banned in France and soon after in Rousseau's native Geneva, mostly on religious grounds, but nevertheless became popular reading throughout Europe, influencing Emmanuel Kant, and many others.
Some of these ideas began to be developed in Europe by scholars such as the German philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) who articulated a comprehensive pedagogical system based on "five formal steps" of preparation, presentation, comparison, generalization, and application. In this spirit the first kindergarten was founded in Germany by Friedrich Froebel in 1837.(1)
Progressive educational experiments have continued since, including Maria Montessori's influential work in Italy, and the well known Summerhill established in 1921 in England by A.S. Neill.
John Dewey and His Influences
Naturally, principles of progressive education found fertile ground in the United States, an infant nation busy building new institutions. The emphasis on student centered education, practical results, and shared effort were perfectly consonant with American democratic ideals.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) of Massachusetts had laid the foundation, believing, as did Thomas Jefferson, that universal, free, nonsectarian education is crucial to the survival of a democracy. Though the philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) bristled when he was called an educator, and took issue with the progressive label and some of the excesses in its implementation, he is the seminal giant of American progressive education.
In the early part of his career, doing graduate work at Johns Hopkins under professor G. S. Morris, and then teaching and writing at the University of Michigan, Dewey was a proponent of Neo-Hegelian philosophy, particularly as interpreted by the Oxford scholar T. H. Green (1836-1882). On his 70thbirthday Dewey said his favorite reading was Plato. Where he broke from these other philosophers was in his denial of absolutes.
"For Plato all knowledge is of the entirely abstract, immutable, indubitable, and eternally fixed Forms. All the rest is just opinions about things in the empirical world of space and time copied from the Forms. Plato placed a supreme harmonizing principle - the Good - above the Forms. By harmoniously structuring the Forms, "the Good" not only guarantees that reality is rational, it also assures that reality is an aesthetic and moral order. For Plato, indubitable knowledge of the Forms (and above all "the Good") is the source of timeless wisdom."
This viewpoint was the foundation for Plato's educational ". . . theory of recollection. This theory presumed that before birth everyone caught a brief glimpse of . . . the Forms. For [Plato] learning just meant recollecting the Forms." ( Garrison, 1997, pg. 5 )
Plato appreciated creativity. In Greek thinking these were aspects of Eros, the ability to create was known as poesis, the skills needed to execute the creation were called techne. However, the Greek view gave these a lesser status than theory, theoria. ( Garrison, 1997, pg. 8 )
Although he wrote at length on the importance of creativity, poesis, techne, Eros, and the pursuit of beauty as the path to enlightened consciousness, in the end Plato still gave primary importance to the abstract detachment of theoria. The highest goal of education was to train kings, the "philosopher rulers who structure the life of the polis." Perhaps this is not a surprising conclusion in an age long before the coming of modern individualism, when democracy was an infant concept with limited application. After all, without accepting guilt, Plato's teacher Socrates accepted his society's judgement and drank the poison.
Hegel drew upon a point of view, already introduced by his modern precedents such as Immanuel Kant, that allowed for an evolutionary, historical development of thought as the human condition changes. In the Greek world individuals were organically integrated with a coherent community (perhaps explaining Socrates' acquiescence to his death sentence). In the transition to a larger Roman society a sense of separate self began to emerge. In medieval Christian society this was further aggravated by a sharp distinction between the sacred and profane, with the individual's self interest totally subjugated to the divine right state. ( Wood, 1998, p. 304 )
Kant believed a split between emotion and reason, between the individual and society, was an inherent condition of modern life, but Hegel concluded that these conflicts could be resolved through the creation of new social forms.(2) He denied the Romanticists' belief in the innate primitive virtue of the individual and instead placed his faith in "the progressive direction of history and the rationality of the institutions of modern society." ( Wood, pg. 314 ) While the goal of education was to produce a self sufficient, rational individual, he stated that "Spirit attains its actuality only through internal division." He thought a certain amount of stress in the child's transition from home to school was appropriate because it created this "internal division". The purpose of education is to create an alignment between the individual's pursuit of self interest and society's needs, and for Hegel it is society's needs which define the "universal."
Individuals are "private persons who have their own interest as their end. Since this end is mediated through the universal, which thus appears to the individuals as a means, they attain their end only insofar as they themselves determine their knowledge, volition and action in a universal way and make themselves links in this continuity."( Wood, 1998, p. 307 )
Writing several decades later (1896), and from within the American experiment, John Dewey seems to be saying the same thing when he states that education is "the art of giving shape to human powers and adapting them to social service," but further reading reveals a shift toward emphasis on the child as an individual that is actually a typically Deweyan shift toward the center:
"The individual who is to be educated is a social individual, and society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society, we are left with only an inert and lifeless mass. Education, therefore, must begin with a psychological insight into the child's capacities, interests, and habits. It must be controlled at every point by reference to these same considerations. These powers, interests, and habits must be continually interpreted - we must know what they mean. They must be translated into terms of their social equivalents - into terms of what they are capable of in the way of social service." (Quoted from "My Pedagogic Creed" in Ryan, 1998, p. 397 )
Words such as "social" and "psychological" are a clue that Dewey was integrating ideas from the new social sciences with his former Hegelian approach.
Though some of Dewey's early writing has a religious, visionary tone, he never makes mention of "Forms," the "universal" nor relies on any such absolute concept. His inclination was always to balance and integrate the opposites which pervade discussions of educational philosophy -- opposites such as absolute vs. transient, individual vs. society, vocational vs. academic, agrarian vs. urban, theory vs. practice, play vs. work, interest vs. effort, what to teach vs. how to teach, form vs. content, etc. - and this he did continually, consistently, and explicitly.
The University of Chicago Laboratory School
Dewey refined many of these ideas during ten years at the University of Michigan, where he was synthesizing input from studies of psychology and the work of William James. Then he moved to the University of Chicago to head the tellingly named Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and Pedagogy. It was here that he founded the famous Laboratory School to put his ideas to work.
The lab school was distinctive in its scientific pragmatism. Teachers put pedagogical approaches to work, then analyzed, discussed, and modified them on a continuing basis. The work of students initiated with practical projects: carpentry, sewing, cooking, neighborhood map making, gardening, nature studies.(3) These stimulated the students' natural interest and led to a spontaneous desire to acquire and employ reading, research, writing, communications and computational skills. ( Borup-Neilsen 1995 p.79-90 )
There was a notable lack of emphasis on books and reading in the early grades. Progressive theorists believed that children are not psychologically or physically developed for reading in the first years of school, so at first spoken language and memory skills were emphasized. On the other hand, Foreign languages were introduced immediately in the lower grades, also with a conversational approach, and with comparative grammar integrated with English studies. ( Borup-Neilsen 1995 p.91 )
There was no homework, but the school was often open to parents & students after hours. (There was a spontaneous and enthusiastic parents organization.)
Borup-Neilsen (p.104) reveals the experimental nature of the school when she quotes Mrs. DePencier in stating that the original intention was to have mixed age classes with a single teacher. This quickly proved unworkable, so classes were segregated more by age, and multiple teachers taught each class according to their areas of expertise.
Dewey presided over the Chicago Laboratory School from 1894 to 1904. Although this is a fairly short time to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive educational system, many of the students were there for the entire 10 years, and returned for reunions to evaluate their experience. They remained positive, citing traits of confidence, independence, and initiative that served them well in advanced education. ( Borup-Neilsen 1995 ).
Columbia University
The Lab School was expensive to operate, with it's low student/teacher ratio, the need for special equipment, and Dewey's insistence on keeping tuition low enough to allow a democratic cross section of students to attend. The difficult struggle for support from the university president ultimately motivated Dewey to move to Columbia University in New York, where he spent the rest of his long career. At Columbia experimentation continued, and the phrase "project based education" began to be used.
The symposium on project based education reported in the September, 1921 issue of the Teacher's College Record discloses a growing community of educators with a strong belief in project based techniques, but with a continued dedication to an experimental, open minded, non-dogmatic approach - as interested in discussing failures as successes. Dewey's philosophies were by now more widespread, and the work of application was being done by many others.
In keeping with progressive education's roots in formal philosophy, Professor Kilpatrick used the forum to define the meaning of the term "project" as a "purposeful activity where the dominating purpose, as an inner urge, (1) fixes the aim of the action, (2) guides its process, and (3) furnishes its drive, it's inner motivation." ( p. 283) It is notable that to this day the word "purpose" is still in widespread use in writing about project based, outcome based education.
Kilpatrick goes on to list four types of projects: one whose purpose is to make something ("embody an idea or aspiration in material form"); one whose purpose is to enjoy something, such as viewing a play or painting; one whose purpose is to solve a problem (seen as likely to separate itself from the first type in the older student who is ready to move into a level of greater abstraction); and one whose purpose is to acquire a skill.
Approaching from different points, the writers in this symposium were remarkably consistent in describing the problems and strengths of project based education. Professor Bagley warned against giving "project" a definition that was too narrow, a definition that only admitted strictly "instrumental" forms of activity. He reminds us that "knowledge or race experience furnishes an equipment for life over and above the tools and instruments it supplies . . . It furnishes foundations, backgrounds, perspectives, points of view, attitudes, tastes, and a host of other things that determine conduct in a very real fashion, and yet through devious channels that are likely to defy analysis and to escape the scrutiny of one who is looking only for direct and visible applications." (p. 292)
Bagley worries about the appropriateness of using the project method to teach history, believing that projects have an inherently narrow focus. He felt the teacher is needed to present history with the "continuity and coherent organization" that are essential to an effective understanding of that subject. This leads him to a broader consideration of the proper role of the instructor (echoing discussions by Rousseau and Hegel), and he cautions us to maintain a conscious and judicious balance between granting the student total freedom and imposing the instructor's purpose. He affirms "the dependence of the child upon the adult for control and guidance" that is founded in nature. (p. 295)
Professor Bonser - less of a fretful philosopher and more focused on praxis and social perspectives - deals with these same issues. He too was saw the danger in an excessively instrumental focus; as a solution he called for the teacher to use the final stages of project work to draw the overview into the discussion, to bring in historical/philosophical connections, reveal ties between disciplines, and draw out underlying principles that the project has the unique ability to connect to real world practice.
Bonser also warns of "selecting projects too often which are individualistic rather than those requiring class cooperation." This contains a partial answer to Bagley's concern about allowing the student an excess of undirected freedom - it is cooperative effort which imposes a subtle restraint upon the individual. ""People have to learn to work together, to share in each other's purposes and problems, to be leaders at times and at other times to subordinate themselves to others in the pursuit of a common purpose."(p. 300)
Mr. Hatch sought to illuminate the problems and strengths of project based education by interviewing his ninth and tenth grade history students and the Columbia University students who observed his high school classes. Among the problems they identified were a concern that the group discussions led to expressions of opinion that were not founded on sufficient knowledge, that the required subject matter may be slighted, and that some members of the class may not participate equally. On the positive side they observed that group project work helped to bring in more references and information, that it advanced discussion and presentation skills that resulted in ideas that were more refined and logical, and that students learned to work independently, exercise initiative, and organize materials, rather than having everything prepared for them by the teacher.
Refining the Message
In 1938 John Dewey published Experience and Education, a marvelously concise book which drew upon the forty plus years of experience with progressive education to answer critics of progressive methods, but more to correct the excesses and mis-applications of progressive theory that its practitioners had strayed into.
In this work Dewey restated that progressive philosophy begins with a consideration of the pupil's current abilities and knowledge base. This is the single idea that most distinguishes progressive from traditional education. Dewey uses the terms "objective" and "internal" to distinguish between the factors external to the student which make up the educational environment, and the student's internal psychological makeup. Both traditionalists and progressives err, he repeats, in staking out one side or another and making of this a reactionary "either/or" dichotomy. He said "The trouble with traditional education was not that educators took upon themselves the responsibility for creating an [objective] environment. The trouble was they did not consider the other factor in creating an experience; namely the powers and purposes of those taught. It was assumed that a certain set of conditions was intrinsically desirable, apart from its ability to evoke a certain quality of response in individuals. This lack of mutual adaptation [between the objective and internal] made the process of teaching and learning accidental. Those to whom the provided conditions were suitable managed to learn. Others got on as best they could." (p. 45)
At the same time he decried progressive zealots who, for fear of impinging on the student's freedom, neglected to create an objective environment rich in educative experience.
Other principles that were restated and clarified in Experience and Education were "the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process" (p. 67) and the need to ground the experiential project work in real life. "Anything which can be called a study," he says, "whether arithmetic, history, geography, or one of the natural sciences, must be derived from materials which, at the outset fall within the scope of ordinary life experience." (p. 73)
Again gently scolding progressive instructors who go to an extreme of detachment from the students' project work, Dewey reminds teachers that it is their proper role to draw upon their own maturity and accumulated experience to direct pupils toward experiences of high educative value, steering away from experiences that would be non-educative or even mis-educative, thus guiding student projects along an ascending progression, building from one to the next. The teacher "must constantly regard what is already won not as a fixed position but as an agency and instrumentality for opening new fields which make new demands upon existing powers of observation and the intelligent use of memory. Connectedness in growth must be [the teacher's] constant watchword." (p. 75) Dewey calls this "continuity of experience," and labels continuity as a major criteria for judging the educative quality of any learning experience.
The counterpoint: traditional education.
The above quotes give an idea of what Dewey regarded as some failings of traditional education: the lack of consideration of the psychology of the child with a disregard for their actual abilities at different developmental stages, and the lack of active involvement of the child in the educational process. Perhaps it is good to provide further description of what he perceived traditional education to be in order to give some contour to this counterpoint to the progressive approach. Dewey said that in traditional education:
"The subject matter of education consists of bodies of information and skills that have been worked out in the past; therefore, the chief business of the schools is to transmit them to the new generation. . . . [The school is] a kind of institution sharply marked off from other social institutions. Call up in imagination the ordinary schoolroom, its time schedules, schemes of classification, of examination and promotion, of rules of order, and I think you will understand what is meant by 'pattern of organization'. If you then contrast this scene with what goes on in the family, for example, you will appreciate what is meant by the school being a kind of institution sharply marked off from any other form of social organization. . . .
Since the subject matter as well as standards of proper conduct are handed down from the past, the attitude of the pupils must, on the whole, be one of docility, receptivity, and obedience. Books, especially textbooks, are the chief representatives of the lore and wisdom of the past, while teachers are the organs through which pupils are brought into effective connection with the material. Teachers are the agents through which knowledge and skills are communicated and rules of conduct enforced." (1938, p.17-18)
Echoing the "sharply marked off institution" idea, he notes that since traditional schools felt no need to connect with the students actual experience "there was no demand for the teacher to become acquainted with the conditions of the local community. . . in order to utilize them as educational resources." (1938, p.40)
Elsewhere Dewey notes that the traditional school could get by without a well articulated philosophy. "About all it required in that line was a set of abstract words like culture, discipline, our great cultural heritage, etc., actual guidance being derived not from them, but from custom and established routines." (1938 p.28)
Current Models - Project Based and Outcome Based Education
Since Experience and Education was published in 1938, a great deal more experience with progressive education technique has been accumulated. The vocabulary has modified and expanded, and to a certain extent factions have arisen. Now there is a body of fresh and useful technique to draw from, and an abundant, mature theoretical dialog with a tendency toward arcane complexity, which could probably benefit from an occasional review of first principles as stated so concisely by John Dewey.
By now an awareness of developmental psychology has thoroughly suffused K-12 education. To a greater or lesser extent Deweyan principles can be seen at work in any classroom in the lower grades. Higher grades are still usually organized in a lecture/test structure. Teaching to standardized multiple choice tests is the norm, and community wide discussion - usually anxious, but sometimes smug - follows the annual ups and downs of test results. In this context it is interesting to note that up until fourth or fifth grade American students perform at an average level in comparison to other countries, but after that they fall below the international average. (
Darling-Hammond, 1995, p9
)
Project based educationThe term "project based education" has come to refer to a type of reform being introduced in the last two or three decades primarily in professional schools ( notably Harvard medical school). Case Western Reserve University and McMaster university became pioneers in the technique when they established new medical schools in the 1950's and '60's. The technique has been applied successfully internationally not only in the health care professions, but in engineering, architecture, computer science, business, and law.
As
Boud & Feletti
say, "Problem-based courses start with problems rather than with exposition of disciplinary knowledge." (p14) Research projects and exams begin with such problems as a patient's presentation of symptoms that requires diagnosis and treatment, a mechanical device that has failed and must be redesigned, a corporation's data needs for which a computer solution must be designed, etc.When problems which the student needs to solve are the basis for education, students learn to perform in situations that are like the ones they will be practicing in after they graduate. They also develop the learning techniques they can use in the continuing life long education that is crucial in the professions.
The transition to problem based programs present several problems. It requires a redefinition of the role of student and teacher that some may not be comfortable with. Shona Todd of the Aukland Institute of Technology notes "The path from lecturer to facilitator is often an uneasy one. Those who have taught competently and efficiently using lecturing techniques, and who prize that competence and efficiency, find the change especially hard to adjust to. (
Boud & Feletti, 1991, p130 )
Students may have to adjust the habits and expectations that they bring with them from conventional education. Thus thorough training in the philosophy is advised, involving both students and teachers in the transition. An institutional reorganization may be required if project based programs are to be implemented beyond the scale of a single class. Schedules may need to be adjusted to allow longer work periods; faculty time allotments may need to be rearranged to allow for such things as interdisciplinary conferences; lecture theaters may need to be adapted for small group work.
Outcome based education.
Current techniques are gathered under the banner of "Outcome Based Education" (OBE), an outgrowth of ideas initiated in the 1960s by John B. Carroll and refined by Benjamin S. Bloom under the name "mastery learning". While the success of Carroll and Bloom's techniques was being documented in the 1970's, practitioners began to look at ways to apply them beyond the classroom level, and the term outcome based education came into use. (
Desmond, 1995, p 6
.)Outcome based education, stated most simply, is a practice of listing the skills and characteristics students should have when they complete the learning experience, then designing the curriculum to cultivate those skills. It is working backwards from the ends to the means.
Spady & Marshall
(1991) define an outcome as "a successful demonstration of learning that occurs at the culminating point of a set of learning experiences. . . . what students are ultimately able to do at the end, when all formal instruction is over and can be synthesized and applied successfully."The specifics of this process can vary, depending upon whether the implementation of outcome based philosophy is taking place at the level of the classroom, the campus, the district, or the state, and depending upon whether the curriculum designers intend to use an existing curriculum as a starting point (transitional OBE), or begin the design from scratch (transformational OBE). These kinds of considerations tend to affect the scope of the learning outcomes, and thus their definitions.
Defining learning outcomes
Once this initial definition of outcomes is begun, simplicity vanishes. When the State of Pennsylvania was beginning a transformation to OBE in 1991 the proposed list of learning outcomes numbered four hundred and fifty two. (
Pliska & McQuade, 1994
) A year later, amidst intense statewide controversy, the number had been reduced to a mere fifty three.California State University at Monterey Bay was newly established in 1994 with a commitment to outcome based learning, uncommon in post secondary education. The process of defining learning outcomes for the entire university and for the individual majors has been an ongoing, intense debate. (At the time of this writing the university wide learning outcomes are contained in a list of thirteen university learning requirements, described at
http://csumb.edu/academic/ulr
)The district wide implementation of outcome based education in Johnson City, New York is a widely studied success.
Desmond
(1996) observes that a key reason for its success is that the entire community was involved in defining the program and its learning outcomes, including not only teachers and administrators, but parents, staff, and the community at large. Administrators and a few teachers began the program, implementing it in a few classrooms, and it was expanded gradually to encompass the entire district only as new groups could be brought into the dialogue, arrive at an understanding of the philosophy, and make their contributions to it.Consistency is another basis for Johnson City's success that
Desmond
(1996, p. ix) identifies. Educational reform movements tend to ebb and flow with changes of administration or other political currents in cycles that are typically too short to produce any results or even yield any concrete information on their success or failure. Johnson city has held its course for more than 30 years. Johnson City named its method of district wide implementation the Outcomes-Driven Developmental Model, and it has become something of a consulting industry in its own right, the seed ground for the national OBE movement.The process of defining learning outcomes is laborious. It challenges a learning community to include the whole community, and to communicate effectively and thoroughly.
(4)
No dialogue is more important to society.Garrison
(1997) characterized teaching as a creative act, "erotic" in the original Greek sense, and essential to the survival of humanity. For our survival as a species we depend on biological reproduction, yes, but we depend just as crucially on the reproduction of culture. Since schools are our major acculturating institutions, it is of elemental importance for entire communities to be involved in the labor of defining the direction of education.To assist in the process of designing effective outcome based programs
Spady & Marshall
(1991) offer these four guidelines:
"Ensure Clarity of Focus on Outcomes of Significance. Culminating demonstrations become the starting point, focal point, and ultimate goal of curriculum design and instruction. Schools and districts work to carefully align (or match) curriculum, instruction, assessment, and credentialing with the substance (criteria) and processes of the intended demonstration.
Design Down from Ultimate Outcomes. Curriculum and instruction design inherently should carefully proceed backward from the culminating demonstrations (Outcomes) on which everything ultimately focuses and rests, thereby insuring that all components of a successful culminating demonstration are in place.
Emphasize High Expectations for All to Succeed. Outcomes should present a high level of challenge for students, and all should be expected to accomplish them eventually at high performance levels and be given credit for their performance whenever it occurs.
Provide Expanded Opportunity and Support for Learning Success. Time should be used as a flexible resource rather than a predefined absolute in both instructional design and delivery (to better match differences in student learning rates and aptitudes). Educators should deliberately allow students more than one uniform, routine chance to receive needed instruction to demonstrate their learning successfully.
Implicit in the above guidelines is a basic article of faith espoused by OBE proponents:allstudents can learn and succeed, but not necessarily in the same day in the same way. Grading on a curve is not acceptable because it imposes a bell curve template on the class, and dictates that some will excel, some will be left behind, and a majority will be in the middle. (
Desmond
, 1995, p 13) OBE calls for all students to achieve the agreed upon outcomes, regardless of the time or path taken to get there.
Assessment of student progress in an outcome based environment
Testing and evaluating of outcomes may seem problematic for those accustomed to norm based short answer testing. Learning outcomes are not a simple regurgitation of facts that lend themselves to easy quantification by running Scantron cards through a computer. Demonstrations of student abilities, especially major demonstrations ("terminal demonstrations") such as those performed for graduation, involve the exercise of a complex of skills in acquiring, synthesizing, and presenting information.
Furthermore, teamwork is usually emphasized. As early as the 1920's the presenters in the Teacher's College symposium acknowledged the problem of evaluating individuals who are doing collaborative work in groups wherein some may not have contributed as much as others.(
Hatch, 1921, p. 10
)Progressive educators have dealt with the problem by evolving new holistic methods of evaluating student progress. They have also challenged the validity of traditional methods of evaluation. Decrying the widespread use of standardized tests in American
(5)
schools for such crucial purposes as determining school readiness, placement in grades and tracks, and diagnosing learning problems,Darling-Hammond
(1995, p 6) states that most traditional standardized tests "are based on an outmoded theory of learning that stresses the accumulation and recall of isolated facts and skills. . . .'Thinking skills' are the foundation for building 'basic skills', not the other way around." She goes on to cite studies showing the decline of student abilities due to an increased emphasis on standardized tests. Assessment "is only as good as its instruments," says Theodore Sizer, "and it is defensible only to the extent that it actively forwards and enhances a child's learning." (Darling-Hammond
, 1995, p viii)The key phrase in Outcome Based Education is "authentic assessment". Authenticity gives a label to the principle that we have already seen at work in the section on project based education above. Authentic assessment occurs in a context that exercises skills in the way they would be employed on the job, in a community activity, or in the practical conduct of personal and family life.
Portfolio
in OBE A primary tool for both conducting and assessing student work in an authentic context is the student portfolio. Portfolio pieces are designed to demonstrate mastery of agreed upon learning outcomes, leading to culminating presentations that usually combine demonstrations of several different outcomes simultaneously. In this way subjects as diverse as science and art are brought together by the student in an integrated body of work. It is important to note the student's involvement in portfolio building. The portfolio provides a focal point for discussion between the pupil and mentors, it actively involves the student in self evaluation and in determining the direction of that student's learning. In addition to its use in culminating presentations to mark completion of stages in a students progress, the preparation and discussion of portfolio work becomes an integral part of the learning process on a day-to-day basis. It is used in discussions between student and teacher, in parent teacher conferences, and in relationships with community mentors. (
Darling-Hammond
, 1995, p18)Unlike a conventional final exam where questions are kept secret, portfolio criteria must be clearly defined in the beginning, and openly discussed by the student and evaluators.
Since portfolio preparation involves multiple instances in which a student demonstrates skills, it enables assessment of the individual student's capabilities even if most of the work has been done in a group context.
Portfolio projects may be presented in the form of traditional research papers, as multimedia presentations, science or art projects, summations of community experience, or any number of forms (though most writers emphasize a final oral presentation as part of the assessment process.) This provides opportunity for students with different learning styles to employ techniques and media that are appropriate for them.
The integrated project/portfolio approach also fosters what Dewey calls "collateral learning", which he defines as "the formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes. . . . For these attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future. The most important attitude that can be formed is the desire to go on learning. If impetus in this direction is weakened rather than intensified. . . .The pupil is actually robbed of native capacities which otherwise would enable him to cope with the circumstances he meets in the course of his life. " (1938, p.48)
In looking at learning outcomes and assessment it is important to be mindful of the issue of change. Speaking in 1896 from the perspective of the industrial age Dewey said "it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions." (
Ryan
, 1998, p397) 105 years later, in the midst of the wrenching transition into the information age, the only modification that needs to be made to that statement is to reduce the window of uncertainty from twenty years to five or ten. In such a circumstance, the specific information that pupils ingest is not nearly as important as learning to learn. The ultimate value in their education is the metalearning techniques that students take away with them. "It is the action around assessment - the discussions, meetings, revisions, arguments, and opportunities to continually create new directions for teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment - that ultimately have consequence." (Darling-Hammond
, 1995, p18)
Conclusion
Does OBE work?
Evans and King
(1994) acknowledged a paucity of hard data They cite the difficulty of evaluating a system that seems to demand new modes of evaluation, and that has been implemented with varying approaches over the last 25 years, among them mastery learning, Outcome Based Developmental Model, transitional OBE, and transformational OBE. Nevertheless the information that was available was largely positive. Meta-analysis of data for students in various mastery learning classes showed consistent improvement. When outcome based techniques were employed in Minnesota and Missouri test scores rose. Numerous tests have shown that Johnson City students have improved decisively, and continue to rank among the top 10% of students in the state of New York. (Evans & King
,Desmond
)Evans & King conclude that transitional OBE (that which is adapted into traditional systems) does work. They also note that the studies of mastery learning classrooms and of the Minnesota implementation indicate that "OBE appears to benefit low-achieving students while having questionable effects on high achieving students."
Evans & Kings findings were published in the mid-90's. No doubt studies will be emerging that increase the amount of concrete data available to support judgements about the efficacy of OBE and aspects of it that may need to be modified. New applications of OBE continue to be put in place all over the country and the world. If the non-dogmatic, experimental, collaborative approach of John Dewey is sustained, problems will be ameliorated and the effectiveness of the method will be refined. In the 80 years since the quote that began this paper was made, discontent with traditional education has only grown, while OBE now has many decades of experience behind it. Outcome Based Education is an adaptive method that is most appropriate for this age of rapid and massive change that confronts us.
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Endnotes
1. In the opposite spirit the Prussian government banned the establishment of kindergartens in 1851.
2. T. H. Green's development of Hegel's thought laid the foundation for the British social welfare system. Hegel's inclination toward gradual change was rejected in favor of revolutionary change by some who drew from his works, Most notably Karl Marx.
3. It is interesting to note that in Dewey's lab school there was no gender separation - girls did carpentry, boys did cooking. This is in contrast to Rousseau, who proscribed a separate education for girls, fostering a passive role for them.
4. Any organization that is energized by this kind of enthusiasm and collaboration would be likely to experience a higher level of success, regardless of its particular transformative philosophy. If the excitement of innovation is sustained over time, and supported by sound method, concrete progress must result.
5. Both Darling-Hammond (1995) and Wiggins (1989, p. 44) observe that European schools put much less emphasis on standardized testing.